"The board of directors greatly appreciates the Legislature?s decision to provide full funding for LCHIP's important grants," he said, in announcing the funding.

The awarded grants represent an array of New Hampshire's best natural, cultural and historic resources.

"Developing the program, and advocating for its funding, has been a top priority of the NH Preservation Alliance and conservation colleagues since its inception in 2000.

The Forest Society and the Lakes Region Conservation Trust are examples of nonprofits whose projects came up with big this year with LCHIP.

They got $340,000 to help with the massive Mount Major conservation project in Alton and Gilford. The $1.8 million project provides a conservation easement for 940 acres to protect hiking trails, which are visited by an estimated 80,000 hikers a year," Savage said.

Alton and Gilford kicked in a total of $340,000 to match the LCHIP grant.

The historic resource projects span more than two centuries, from the city of Portsmouth's 1705 African Burying Ground to the 1915 Palace Theater in Manchester.

The smallest land conservation project is the 19 acre Stickney Hill Farm in Concord, a project of Five Rivers Conservation Trust and the largest, The Nature Conservancy's 1,324 acre Green Hills Expansion Project in Conway.

In addition to protecting and conserving places people love, LCHIP projects provide economic benefits to the state and communities. With a total project value of $14.8 million, this grant round has leverage of well above the minimum required match of 1:1.

LCHIP Executive Director Dijit Taylor said these projects will also provide employment for more than 200 people and contribute $3.5 million to local payrolls.

Before this grant round, there were 240 LCHIP grants made to help 141 New Hampshire communities conserve more than 260,000 acres of land and 142 historic structures and sites.

The $27 million of state money invested in these projects has leveraged more than $237 million in total project value.

She said about 300 projects and $30 million in state dollars have leveraged seven times that amount; over $200 million.

All the projects, when completed are estimated to attract a half million visitors per year, she said, many of whom will also shop, dine and stay locally.

Total requests to LCHIP for the last round of funds were more than $7 million.

At least some of the 36 projects that applied for this first round but did not receivefunding have expressed an interest in applying for new round, with the applications due June 27.

Workshops on grant writing are held before each grand round and LCHIP staff meet with those who do not get funding to help them improve their projects for other funding considerations or for future LCHIP funding.